Richard II in the Chronicles

Abstract Although we possess his likeness in the Westminster abbey portrait, and almost certainly in the Wilton Diptych, Richard II lives principally in the chronicles and the literary sources. What relatively few letters of his survive throw an interesting though limited light upon his character and outlook.1 For centuries the popular view of Richard has been determined by Shakespeare ‘s play, where the portrait of Richard is heightened by the ‘dramatic bid for tragedy ‘, and where the image of the king derives ultimately from the Lancastrian chronicles and also from the propagandist French accounts of Creton and the author of the Traison et Mort, accounts which were known to Shakespeare through Holinshed. In the play, which is concerned with the theme of kingship, Richard the man gradually emerges from the trappings of office. On a human level he changes from the arrogant and feckless youth to the suffering king, a change dictated in part by these sources. In view of the fact that Shakespeare ‘s view of Richard was conditioned by his chronicle sources, we need to look at them with some care, for through Shakespeare they have immensely influenced most subsequent writings. When we turn to the contemporary chronicles, consisting of narratives written in England, in Hainau1t, and in France, we find that we are dealing, the French narratives apart, with accounts which were the work of monks and secular clerks situated in different parts of the country.